World Service - Business Brief

[KenB]

List,

Whilst not about renewables, this little snippet on the World Service explains all you need to know about Monoline Insurers, and what it means to the worlds economy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/business_brief.shtml

It seems that the whole toxic mess of world finance is starting to unravel as monoline insurance chickens come home to roost.

These sophisticated financial instruments have extracted much of the wealth out of the western economy and left Joe Public and Joe Six-Pack with a mountain of debt.




Ken

[lightfoot]

As Woodie Guthrie once sung  ''Some will rob you with a six-gun, others with a fountain pen''

.....at least Dick Turpin wore a mask 


Lightfoot.

[lightfoot]

In fact, just for the crack, here's the words to the whole toe tapping, thigh slapping song.....sing along now

'The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd'


If you'll gather 'round me children
A story I will tell
Of Pretty Boy Floyd an outlaw
Oklahoma knew him well.
It was in the town of Shawnee
It was Saturday afternoon
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.

There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude
Using vulgar words of language
And his wife she overheard.
Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain
And the deputy grabbed a gun
And in the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

He took to the trees and timbers
And he lived a life of shame
Every crime in Oklahoma was added to his name
Yes, he took to the trees and timbers
On that Canadian River's shore
And Pretty Boy found a welcome
At a many a farmer's door.

There's a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How this outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little home.
Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal
And underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.

It was in Oklahoma City
It was on a Christmas Day
There come a whole car load of groceries
With a letter that did say:
You say that I'm an outlaw
You say that I'm a thief
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.

Now as through this world I ramble
I see lots of funny men
Some will rob you with a Six gun
And some with a fountain pen.
But as through your life you travel
As through your life you roam
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

(Woodie Guthrie 1939)


Sorry Ken didn't mean to steal your thread 

Lightfoot.

[martin]

 

[SteveH]

 Ken,

 Maybe not directly about renuables, but defiantly highlights failings in the current economy that brings the need for sustainability into much sharper focus... Thank you.

[dhaslam]

It shows that people taking decisions in banks are not used to serious problems because they have never experienced difficult times like 1929.   The Northern Rock run was the first one for something like 150 years.  The same wrong decisions no doubt will apply to energy decisions in due course.